Rabbits and Cats and Kiddos

Guess what we found on our front porch today? It's not our first encounter with baby bunnies here. My son found a rabbit nest last summer, and unfortunately a few months ago we found some dead baby rabbits on our porch  (we think the mom was run over by a car in front of our house).

Well, lately we've had another visitor...a cat, probably a neighbour's, which my kids have enjoyed playing with. Well, this morning he was curled up on our porch, and when I took my three year old outside to pet her we found the bunny above in a little nook by the wall right behind where she had been laying.  When we noticed the rabbit the cat came over with some urgency and sniffed it...and then later came over and licked it's back, but didn't bite it. Made me wonder if this was one of those strange cases where a cat takes another creature under it's wing, or if the cat was just letting us know this was HER dinner.

Cat and child went to the other side of the yard and I slipped inside for a minute, and came back to find my child holding the bunny. I took it away from him, and not sure of the cat's intentions, took it inside until I could figure out what to do with it.

After a little research I learned the best thing was to try to return it to it's nest, but the cat was still hanging about (with no way to keep it out) and the nest, which I discovered at the edge of the porch, was very wet from last nights rain (I'm guessing that's why the bunny left it in the first place). So, I decided to keep him inside in a box with a warmed up sock full of rice (as suggested on the internet) and return him after it warmed up a bit and the cat had left.

He's now back in the nest...he snuggled into it immediately like he knew it, and seems to be fine. I am still concerned about the cat and a line of ants near the nest, but for now I think he's better off there. Since rabbits only feed their babies at night and early morning I'll have to wait until tomorrow to see if she's come back for him. They don't stay near their nest, I gather, because they don't want to draw predators to it.

I may not have handled things just right, but I'm glad to have found a live bunny this time and hope he stays that way.

UPDATE
Sadly, the little bunny did not make it through the night.  I found it the next morning just outside it's nest, and it had died.   Could have been the cat that the cat had done some danage to it we hadn't seen.  :-(


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